The Daily Telegraph turns 140: Current and ex-staffers look back on death knocks and doorstops

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph has had a huge role in the development in Australia’s media.

The newspaper has been in the News Corp (previously News Ltd) stable since 1972. And before that it was owned for 36 years by Frank Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press.

The Tele was broadsheet for its first half century, switching to tabloid format in 1927.

The editorship has been a stepping stone for some of Australia’s best known journalists. ABC chair Ita Buttrose was editor in chief from 1981 to 1984; News Corp’s corporate affairs boss Campbell Reid started his career on the newspaper in 1981 before going on to edit the title; Col Allan who went on to become one of News Corp’s top editors in New York, was a high profile editor during the 1990s; David Penberthy led the paper before going on to edit news.com.au, launch commentary site The Punch and editor the Sunday Mail in Adelaide; and Sky News boss Paul Whittaker edited the paper until 2015.

As The Tele marks its 140 years, Mumbrella invites current and former staffers to look back over their time with the title and on its legacy.

Christopher Dore, Editor 2015-2018 (now Editor in Chief of The Australian)

What was the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph? 

We broke so many great stories, in federal and state politics, and sport. I was extremely proud of our record in my time of winning the Walkley Award for scoop of the year three years in a row in three categories – rugby league, crime and federal politics. That says everything that is great about The Tele. Recognition for the first time as the News Brand of the Year at the News Awards was also a great achievement for the team publishing a great newspaper and innovative website every day.

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with? 

Exposing Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s infidelity that ultimately led to his demise as the second most powerful man in Australian politics is probably the story that had the greatest impact, but there are many others, including how we proudly backed The Everest horse race and generally optimistically backed in the state and the people of NSW. Often the media is criticised by readers for being too negative, and I think a newspaper like The Tele can and does play a prominent role in bringing people together, and forcing change for the better. 

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

It always comes down to great stories, that not only connect to The Tele’s readers in Sydney and NSW but that resonate across the country. That has always been The Tele’s strength. While it is very much a NSW newspaper, it has a capacity to capture the national mood, and spark the national debate, on subjects that really matter to everyday Australians.

You often hear how different people are in different states, how Queenslanders are somehow a different breed to Victorians, and how NSW has nothing in common with people from Adelaide. I completely disagree. There are fundamental, and deep, connections between Australians, regardless of where they live or were born, whether it be in another state or another country.

Repeatedly setting the news agenda, from rugby league to federal politics, was a great highlight.

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph? 

The Tele will continue to be Sydney’s No.1 source of news, no question, and will continue to evolve, as technology changes and the population changes.

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be? 

Voice of Sydney

Bryce Corbett, Page 13 gossip columnist 1994-2000, TV producer, author

What was the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph? 

It’s going to sound corny, but the camaraderie of the place was something really special. I came through the old copyboy and cadet system. It meant performing the most menial of tasks, and working the most anti-social of hours. It meant subjecting yourself on a daily basis to workplace behaviour that would make a modern-day HR manager blanche. But it also meant doing it in the company of a bunch of like-minded, aspiring journos – who are still some of the best people I know. We were in the trenches together. Earning a pittance, spending every cent at the Evening Star Hotel and generally having the time of our lives.

It was the days of shorthand classes and midnight-to-dawn shifts in the radio room, eavesdropping on police radio frequencies across the city and recording the nightly drama of Sydney-by-night. It was death-knocks and door-stops and being the first on the scene at catastrophic accidents – seeing things no journalism lecture could ever prepare you for. It was eccentric, chain-smoking old reporters thumping away at primitive word processors, the constant rattle of the Telex machine and the occasional fax from London, ominously signed ‘KRM’. There were compositors downstairs on Level 2, who – when they weren’t out on strike – would bark at you if you crossed a demarcation line.

Every day, as the clock ticked towards 6pm, tensions would mount and the air would become thick with expletives. Every night, the entire building would shudder as the printing presses rumbled into action: a signal to down tools and repair to the Evening Star (or ‘The Evil’ as it was affectionately known), where schooners were ordered and we would marvel that we had somehow pulled it off again. If it sounds excessively romantic, it’s because it was.

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with?

It’s hard to nominate a single story – there were so many. I was lucky enough to write the Page 13 gossip column just at the time when celebrities – who had previously been relegated to the women’s or feature pages of the newspaper – began to creep onto the front page. It was the beginning of the age of celebrity. Page 13 was regularly the most-read page of the paper (or so they kept telling me, most likely in lieu of an actual pay rise). And with that came an inordinate amount of influence. Which, for a 24 year-old, was heady stuff. In an era before Instagram, Page 13 was prized real-estate – which meant invitations to every event imaginable (the Cointreau Balls were an annual highlight) and elaborate attempts at currying favour (see also: the Cointreau Balls). Phone cameras were not yet a thing, which meant celebrities could behave badly without the fear of consequence that exists today. And that made for some memorable evenings. The nature of the column meant it was also the subject of more than a few defamation actions. My editor at the time, the indomitable Col Allan, would be unperturbed if a legal letter arrived. “I’d be more concerned if people weren’t taking offence,” he’d say – before ordering me out of the office and off to lunch with the sage words: “You’re not going to find any stories in here, son!” 

I suppose if I had to nominate one story that stood out, it would have to be the night Princess Diana visited Australia for a charity ball. She had recently separated from Prince Charles which meant she was travelling solo, without any of the usual royal entourage. Rather than join the journalists in the media pen outside the venue, I had a ticket to the ball and hovered at the entrance waiting for the Princess to arrive. When she did, she got out of the car and, this being Australia, no one had thought to arrange to meet her at the car door and escort her into the ball. Spying my chance, I leapt forward, introduced myself and began to walk her up the red carpet. The whole thing was being broadcast live. Apparently, back in the newsroom, a cheer went up as the paper’s gossip columnist made small-talk with the most famous woman in the world before a national TV audience. Later in the evening, in an audacious manoeuvre, the paper’s photographer (who had frocked up, bought a ticket and snuck in with a pair of identical, disposable cameras in her purse) ripped off a couple of shots of Princess Di slow dancing with Sting. As security descended on her to confiscate the camera, she discreetly passed it to me whilst surrendering the replica. The photos that appeared on the front page the following morning were the stuff of tabloid dreams.

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you?

I worked at the paper at a time of significant change. We merged with the Daily Mirror to become (briefly) the Telegraph Mirror. We ushered in the bold new era of colour. The photography went from film to digital. But I suppose what never changed was the DNA of the place, or the ingredients of a front page scoop. The advent of the internet was surprisingly (and perhaps tellingly, in retrospect) not paid a whole lot of heed. We were too busy focusing on tomorrow’s paper to indulge in any long-term thinking about whither the world wide web. The Daily Telegraph was such a valuable training ground for young reporters. As a cadet, you’d do stints of court reporting, police rounds, feature writing, business and sports reporting – and yes, typing in by hand the TV guide and horoscopes (any rumour that on the days the resident astrologer forgot to send in his or her copy it would be left to a cadet to make up the stars for the following day is strictly that: a rumour). You honed your reporting skills out on the job – and also back in the newsroom where your copy would be edited without fear or favour. You learned to write quickly and efficiently. When all you had was a three paragraph brief to tell an entire story, not a single word was wasted.

You were out on the road, meeting people, interviewing people face-to-face, cultivating contacts, working out the motivation of each person you met and how to delicately exploit it. You came to understand that every piece of information that was given to you came with an agenda – and it was your job to divine it. I don’t know where young journos get that sort of training these days.

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph? 

There’s a lot of talk about the death of newspapers, but in an era of fake news and Facebook feeds, I honestly believe we’re going to see audiences increasingly reverting to news brands they trust. Easily the most valuable commodity a masthead possesses is trust, built up over many years: and editors who toy with that trust do so at their own peril. In many respects, there’s never been a more important time for properly-trained journalists and the tradition-steeped mastheads (like the Tele) they work for. Whether the journalism is printed on paper or published online, the means of its delivery is largely unimportant. What is important is that those who seek to govern us are held to account, those whose efforts make us better as a people are celebrated – and those consumed with hubris are mercilessly lampooned. It’s the Australian way, after-all.

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be? 

Frank. Fearless. Fun.

JULY 1, 1879 : Masthead for The Sydney Daily Telegraph for 01/07/79.
NSW / Newspaper / DT (click to enlarge)

Miranda Devine, columnist and host of Miranda Live 

What’s the one event you’re most proud to have been involved with? 

Exposing the truth about the Safe Schools program.

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

Politics has dominated, from the revolving door of prime ministers in the past decade to the corrupt era of NSW Labor when Eddie Obeid reigned supreme. But, as a former police reporter, what sticks with me most are the disasters, murders, terrorist attacks and tragedies, and the nobility of first responders and survivors. 

The Lindt café siege, Bali bombings, Operation Pendennis terror plots, Cronulla riots, Newcastle earthquake, Thredbo disaster, and back as far as the Kempsey and Grafton bus crashes, after which we campaigned for the Pacific Highway upgrade.

Serial killers like the granny killer, John Wayne Glover, and backpacker killer, Ivan Milat. The gang rapes which plagued Sydney in the 2000s and the subsequent landmark trials. Victims of murder and misadventure, such as Anna Wood and Michael Marslew and their families, some of whom I keep in touch with to this day. The heroin epidemic and the many countless good cops who keep this city safe.

Devine in Iraq in 2007 interviewing US General David Petraeus about the surge.

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph? 

We will adapt and thrive like we always have, embracing new technology, always championing our readers and remaining at heart the big brash tabloid worthy of this big brash city

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be?  

Feisty, Fearless, Sydney.  

Gemma Jones, Deputy Editor of The Daily Telegraph

What has been the highlight of your time working at The Daily Telegraph?

This is my second stint at The Daily Telegraph and since I returned in January the highlight has been seeing the enduring power of the masthead through our Save Our Heroes campaign. A generation of young veterans is being failed, hundreds have committed suicide and since we started the campaign the plight of their families and their call for a royal commission into their deaths has reached every other media outlet, and most Australians. The government is in no doubt that it must act. We will not stop until the families are listened to and we know our readers expect nothing less.

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with?

Without doubt the way the Telegraph rallied to cover the Lindt cafe siege and the tragedy that unfolded. It was a type of terrorism never previously experienced in Sydney and we shared our readers’ alarm at this development in the life of our city. At the height of these dramatic events, we also found ourselves receiving calls from hostages in the cafe. This brought home in no uncertain terms that our responsibilities that day extended well beyond simply reporting the news.

If you think back on the history of The Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you?

The Daily Telegraph was started by a journalist who regarded his contemporaries as elitist. He wanted a paper which reflected public opinion, our history editor Troy Lennon recently discovered. In that regard, the newsroom’s ethos is much the same as it was at the beginning. There are no longer clattering typewriters in the newsroom, deadline challenged reporters puffing away on cigarettes at their desks or hot metal type. On the whole, today’s Telegraph reporters have to work harder than their predecessors but with the same determination to get stories that are important to our readers’ lives. Actually, when you look at our early editions, as we did for our 140th birthday coverage, the stories that today’s reporters are working on haven’t changed all that much. We still break the big exclusives but we also still find space for the quirky, fun and sometimes simply bizarre Sydney yarns of a kind that were there in those first Teles capturing the brash personality and excitement of the city. The Telegraph news floor is still very much an elitist free zone and we still absolutely fulfil the promise of 1879 to reflect public opinion. If you wanted to see evidence of who was going to win the federal election, just check out our letters page in the days leading up to May 18 — all the clues were there.

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph?

If you look at the first copy of The Daily Telegraph, the front page is a jumble of classified ads. Now we have the best production team in the business and technology enabling us to produce a far more attractive product in both our paper and on our website than that first newspaper edition in 1879. I can only imagine what the Telegraph will be able to produce in the next 140 years with the myriad of technology which will become available.

If you could sum up The Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be?

Energetic. Entertaining. Engaging.

Fiona Connolly, Bauer Media associate publisher, celebrity & entertainment weeklies, editor-in-chief Woman’s Day

What has been the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph?

I think back to many front page stories, opinion pieces and columns throughout my time at The Daily Telegraph with pride, but nothing could beat my excitement of being part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic reporting team for The Daily Telegraph. The whole of Sydney was on a natural high. We were proud to be living in the greatest city in the world and I was thrilled to be in the thick of the action. My mission was to party, literally. As editor of Sydney Confidential I was charged with covering the social side of the world’s biggest celebration. From hanging out with the likes of the Dream Team until all hours of the night at the Last Lap at Darling Harbour, to pop up nightclubs, boat parties on Sydney harbour and my faithful photographer and driver at my service around the clock, my “job” appealed to me on every level. The Daily Telegraph even furnished the party crew with a city apartment for after the after parties! For a footloose 23-year-old, it was the greatest gig imaginable. 

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with?

I’m not sure if proud is the right word for this but I was certainly honoured to get to know and write stories with Heath Ledger. I spent a lot of time with celebrities – local and international, and there wasn’t much I kept sacred, all of it ended up in print. But I connected closely with Heath and will take many of his secrets to my grave. We spent hours on the phone discussing the rights and wrongs of celebrities and journalism, paparazzi, privacy, and over time, family, friendships and love. His death was nothing short of a waste. It was a privilege to get to know him.

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

I loved being part of the evolution of the internet and a part of News Ltd as we navigated our way through that enormous change. The impact it had on the way we operated was enormous, changing all facets of our working lives and journalism as we knew it was suddenly a whole new ball game. To think back to the days of collecting press releases from fax machines and getting my shorthand up to 120 words a minute makes me feel like a dinosaur!

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph?

I hope we see more of the same –  fun, fearless, feisty, heartfelt and heartland coverage of our amazing city. Whether it’s a physical newspaper or digital only version down the track, I can’t see the DNA of The Daily Telegraph deviating from what its readers have loved for 140 years.

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be?

Spirit of Sydney

Liz Deegan, General Manager Corporate Affairs & Relationships at News Corp Australia. 

What has been the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph? 

I remember my days at the DT very fondly. It was a fun, fast-paced wild ride with great characters but most of all, great journalists and editors who never settled for second best. People who worked hard and played hard and never, ever missed a deadline or came back from a job empty-handed. It was demanding, and tough and you never died wondering what the backbench thought of you. I had two stints at the Tele and the absolute constant was the sense of fun and team spirit. We were all in it together – we loved Sydney and we loved what the Tele was all about. It was a place where lifelong lessons were learned, and friendships forged.  

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with? 

In the late 1990s, I was assigned to the UK as European correspondent for our network of metro daily and Sunday papers. It was an extraordinary journalistic adventure and covering the death and funeral of Diana was my most memorable. But the story I’m most proud of was locating wanted millionaire pedophile Philip Bell in Switzerland. He had been named in the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption and the day after NSW Police told the Commission, he could not be found, we had a front page image of him sitting in his Swiss chalet and a full interview in which he admitted his love of boys but denied it was a crime.

Not only did photographer (now acclaimed artist) Narelle Autio and I find Bell, he invited us in for a cup of tea, we secured his trust and spent three days with him, securing enough photos and words to keep Filthy Phil on the front page of the Tele for a week. Two weeks later, the Tele’s Asia correspondent Nick Cater tracked down a second pedophile, Robert “Dolly” Dunn, also named in the Royal Commission. Nick found him in a village on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, and it was front page of the DT with the infamous headline, Hello Dolly. They were both great scoops and reinforced what the Tele has always been about – leading the news that other media follow.

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

Two standouts for me would be the 2000 Olympics, and September 11. The Olympics energised and lifted Sydney like no other event, and the Tele was right there in the middle of the energy, excitement and wonder. It was the best of times for the city, and the Telegraph team. I was the chief of staff at Homebush and it was both the hardest I’d ever worked and the most fun I’d ever had. Sept 11 was the worst of times in history, but that day, the weeks that followed, the best of times in the Telegraph newsroom. Brave coverage, a united newsroom, and an absolute commitment from every single person to producing the most compelling newspapers in our history.  

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph? 

Its trademark attitude, irreverence and Sydney spirit to endure, in step with its determination to always deliver to its audience, on whatever platforms and channels, the absolute best stories it can about this city and its people. No-one knows or tells Sydney stories better than the Tele does because no-one cares about Sydney as much as the Tele does. 

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be? 

Strong. Bold. Fun. (and Important). 

Warren Brown, editorial cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph

What has been the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph? 

The highlight of being the editorial cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph is precisely that – being the editorial cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph. What on earth could be better? Cartooning is a kind of polygamous marriage of drawing and thinking and writing – and nothing could possibly be more rewarding than seeing these three strands come together every day alongside the editorial. There is something that is both exhilarating and humbling when discovering a cartoon someone has cut out and stuck behind a bar in a pub or sticky-taped to a fridge door – and I’ve seen this in the most unexpected places – even as far afield as the Marree Hotel at the end of the Birdsville Track. But curiously, in looking back at cartoons I’ve drawn over the years my style has often changed dramatically –  as the newspaper changed, so the cartoon needed to as well. The very nature of The Daily Telegraph is that it’s a living-breathing part of Sydney that is constantly evolving and, of course, different editors have brought their own idiosyncratic personalities to the newspaper. 

One of the highlights has always been to tap into their enthusiasm and hang on for the ride – to watch how a story that began as a simple one line on the Chief of Staff’s news-list can be swiftly crafted to become a topic for national debate has never ceased to amaze me – and the cartoon has always been an integral part of the amazing assembly of stories and photographs and graphics that make the newspaper so cohesive. The thing to remember is that The Daily Telegraph has never been a follower of news – it has always strived to set the agenda so that other media outlets will follow whatever The Daily Telegraph is putting forward. As such, I’ve loved being part of the immediacy of The Daily Telegraph and the punch it can throw when needed. I’ve loved working in television and in radio as well – but I can honestly say, there is an unparalleled thrill in newspapers.

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with? 

The moment I heard Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash in Paris, like most people, I assumed it was nothing more than some minor misadventure. But I’ll never forget the unfolding drama of that day, the disbelief and shock as the world gradually learned of this young, beautiful woman’s horrific demise in some sort of grubby car chase in a Parisian tunnel.

At the time I was at home having dinner with a group of friends when the unthinkable news came through Diana was dead and for some reason, the idea for a cartoon instantly flashed through my mind. I excused myself and drove straight to the office to draw a subtle, yet powerful image of a graceful Diana walking away from us through a kind of haze or mist, the centrepiece of a Queen of Hearts playing card. Over the next few weeks the cartoon was reprinted all over the world. It was one of those moments when the image appeared as if from nowhere – a kind of emotional reaction that was right for the time…

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

The Daily Telegraph has always had an extraordinary understanding of Sydney for all its grandeur and excitement – and I’ll never forget the Sydney Olympics – ancient history now, but what a moment for the city – and for The Daily Telegraph. But also, from the get-go Sydney is infamous for its seedy underworld scene. While I’ve always detested the idea of lionising the grubby, malevolent figures cruising the shadowy depths of the city, The Daily Telegraph has never been afraid to shine the spotlight on Sydney’s dark corners. Aside from the old-time razor gangs of the ‘20s (on which the paper reported), the murderous Chow Hayes of the ‘50s and even the Roger Rogersons and Neddy Smiths of the ‘80s and ‘90s, The Daily Telegraph has always been on the front foot with reporting the most recent of crime scourges – terror, ice, gang warfare. But in my mind the Lindt Cafe siege was a moment for which The Daily Telegraph was the perfect media outlet for that exact moment. It was as if the newspaper had an instant response putting world-class journalism into high gear precisely when it was needed. 

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph? 

By then, they’ll have figured out how people can live for a thousand years. That will mean I’ll have been the cartoonist for The Daily Telegraph for 170 years by which time I will have accrued a considerable amount of long service leave. I’ll be planning a six-week holiday to Neptune.

In the meantime – whatever Sydney looks like – it’ll be the voice of the city…

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be? 

There can only be three words to describe The Daily Telegraph – The Daily Telegraph. Sums it up I think…

Phil Rothfield, sports editor-at-large

What has been the highlight of your time working at the Daily Telegraph? 

One highlight in 43 years at the newspaper is a tough question. There have been so many. Getting promoted from a copy boy to get a cadetship was a highlight in the late 70’s.

My first front page about a police boys club (PCYC) dealing in steroids was a highlight. I can still remember banging out the intro on an old typewriter. “Police are investigating claims teenage members of their boys clubs are being sold anabolic steroids.” It was a huge thrill. You still get that same adrenalin rush across the news floor. News and team work is the DNA of the Telegraph. 

What’s the one story or event you’re most proud to have been involved with? 

I was national editor for all News Corp mastheads at the Sydney Olympics. We had a team of around 80 reporters and columnists on the ground. We flew in 30 sub-editors from around the country. The Cathy Freeman moment and the quality of the writing. That’s the thing about The Daily Telegraph and News Corp. The company will throw resources behind major events and big stories like no-one else can.  

If you think back on the history of the Daily Telegraph, what are the things that stand out to you? 

Reacting quickly. The death of Princess Diana occurred prior to the internet. It happened around lunchtime on a Sunday. The Editor of The Sunday Telegraph Roy Miller made a decision to publish an afternoon edition. This was unheard of in those days. Half a dozen staff members from editorial were summoned back to work. Somehow they found printers and paper truck drivers on a Sunday afternoon. We were one of the first newspapers in the world to publish the story of her tragic death.

What do you expect for the next 140 years of the Daily Telegraph?

We’ve adjusted really well from being a newspaper to a news publisher. We will always be the city’s most relevant voice. Sport, politics, police rounds and celebrities. Our company will always invest in good quality journalism. It will just be delivered differently. From paper trucks to who knows what.

If you could sum up the Daily Telegraph in three words, what would they be?

Agenda-setting, 24/7 news.